The Lemon Fool

My wife came to the UK 12 years ago and had our first child within a year. The second arrived 2 years later and I've been working away in the week so as a result she has pretty much paid no NI. The Child Benefits are in my name as she had no recourse to public funds for two years.

How do I now maximize her missing NI contributions bearing in mind we may still move abroad and the pension payments will be frozen?

It's worth having a look at https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
You'll get an estimate of what your state pension will be, and it also shows your history of NI contributions.

FredBloggs wrote:Stay at home mums get their NIC's credited to them for free. Not sure how you claim that but a call to HMRC should sort it out for you.

Normally the person getting the child benefit automatically gets the NI credits. However it may be possible to transfer them: see https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance-credits/eligibility.